


Raised by Rain and Ashes

by JudeMathis



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, Demons, Elemental Magic, Elementals, Elves, Fantasy, Fantasy Creatures, Fire, M/M, Phoenix - Freeform, Supernatural Elements, Water, Werecats, Werewolf, dragon - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-29
Updated: 2018-08-07
Packaged: 2019-03-11 05:19:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,424
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13517403
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JudeMathis/pseuds/JudeMathis
Summary: This is a fanfic that is written by crownednezumi from tumblr and myself. We hope that you enjoy reading this story though! You can find me at mkayswritings on tumblr.





	1. The Captured Flame

Keith Kogane wondered how exactly he’d gotten himself into this particular situation. Chained to the damp brick wall by his wrists, his ebony hair matted to his head with blood and sweat. A dark red and black mixture, daggers pierced his wings to the wall behind him. 

_ Oh, right they shocked me with something… _ So, now, he was stuck in his human form with some of his natural form’s characteristics. Like his wings, for example. 

Groaning, he tried to move—however everything hurt. Hearing some footsteps, he gazed over at the bars of his cell. 

Beyond his prison chamber, computers and medical equipment was set up. There were other cells on the opposite side, however if there was anyone inside them they were no longer showing vital signs.

A few humans in lab coats as well as another human with guns strapped to him came into view. The man with the heavy artillery had a small girl in his possession. Her mouth was taped shut as she looked around with wide blue eyes. She appeared to be quivering as they began to strap her to one of the tables.

_ Oh hell. _ Keith thought to himself as he fought to break his chains. He knew he could do it, but he also knew he’d be hurting worse afterwards. His violet eyes turned red as his wings grew a bit larger. Fire radiated from his wrists, melting the chains and the daggers from his wings too.

Slowly, he limped over to the bars and melted them too with just a touch. It was then the humans all looked his way. Ignoring their obvious frantic screams of “stop” and “seize him”—he made his way over towards the girl.

The man before him with the guns attempted to stop him. Scowl on his face—he had platinum blond hair and some facial hair growing. With a large but not fat type of build, he brought his firearm out and began to shoot Keith.

The bullets melted on contact as he moved forward. Once he was close enough he sent flames over to the table to melt the girl’s restraints. He tried not to burn her, but he was hoping she’d rather be free then endure their experimentation on her.

Once able to, the girl jumped off the table unsteadily and ripped the tape off her mouth. Looking over to Keith, he saw she had no burns to report. A tanned complexion, the child had dark brown locks that messily went towards her shoulders almost. The pink shirt she wore was torn and falling off her shoulder as she stood up shakily. Appearing to be about 3’5 in height, she ran to the winged man’s side.

Looking down at her with his fiery eyes, he came off a bit more harsh than intended. “Get out of here, now!” Pushing her towards the door, he dodged the new onslaught the human hunter threw at him. Having now decided to try and fight him without his weapon. 

The ones wearing lab coats pulled some alarm before leaving themselves. Soon more menacing and armed individuals appeared as Keith backed up and tried to figure out what he could do in his current shape. 

The girl finally ran out of the room, which made him feel better as he felt his body shift and morph into the form he knew best.

—

Lance McClain found himself in front of a hunter fortress that his friend Hunk learned about. Warily, the skinny and lean Cuban entered the base. He instantly heard screams from within the confines of the building. 

Gulping, he continued on.  _ Gotta find ‘Cia.  _ His niece had gone missing—well actually she was taken hostage. So, here he was doing something dangerous with no back up. Sure, he could have asked Hunk but he didn’t want to endanger anyone else.

After a few minutes of wandering around, he saw something running in his direction frantically. Upon closer inspection he noted a familiar brunet sprinting towards him. “’Cia!” He rushed over to her side and cradled her into his arms. His blue eyes became glossy as he teared up. Petting her hair gently, he tried to sound calm. “You okay?” Lance noticed her torn clothing and the dirt on her as he studied her meticulously. 

“Uncle Lance,” She sniffled. Looking up at her uncle, she frowned. “You have to help. This fire bird guy saved me…and he’s fending off the hunters now.” She moved herself onto his back steadily. 

He did want to get her home as soon as possible; however, he didn’t necessarily think leaving someone here to fight off all the hunters was a good move either. “All right, all right.” Giving in, he helped her situate herself on his back before going the way she had come. As he walked closer to the next door, he noticed the screams come to an abrupt halt. 

Once inside, his eyes widened at the sight. A beautiful phoenix stood—or well sat—as they breathed fire at the hunters, killing them most likely. A lightning bolt rained from somewhere above them all onto the majestic creature. 

The phoenix squawked as it was electrocuted. The firebird began to phase back into a more human form as the squawking turned into cries of pain. Collapsing to the floor, he writhed in pain as the static from the blast still continued to shock him.

“That’s him!” Jumping down, she rushed over to her moaning savior. Lance followed suit as he knelt down beside the now human looking male. “Ignacia, stay behind me.” Pushing his niece behind him, he watched the raven-haired male closely for a moment. With no shirt on his pale skin, Lance saw all of the cuts and bruises across the phoenix’s chest. The pair of pants that clung to his legs was muddy and disheveled. The black-haired male had a mullet style haircut—although matted and in need of a good wash. The brunet thought he looked too skinny, in his opinion.

Barely opening his blue-grey eyes, Keith stared into the faces of the little girl from earlier and another. Groaning as the aftershocks subsided, he still couldn’t move. His blood poured down from his injuries on his chest and back onto the floor. Not wanting anyone at the facility to have it, he inched his finger over to the pool of blood and burned it.

The little girl came up to him again, frowning. “Do you need to burn that?” As quickly as she said it, she shot fire from her hands at the pool of blood that was now subsiding. Looking back at the guy, she then turned to her uncle. “Can we take him with us? He needs help.”

“M’gonna have to carry him it looks like…” Lance placed his hands over Keith’s torso as water formed around some of the injuries. After a moment he stopped, wrapped his jacket around Mr. Mullet and proceeded to place him on his back.

The water had felt comforting as it cleaned some of Keith’s wounds. As he was picked up—his eyes fluttered open and closed until he faded into sleep.

—

Pain was the first thing that Keith registered while the room around him was quiet, confusion crossed his mind at first before realizing that he wasn't with the hunters anymore.  _ Oh right... they carried me out of there.  _

The exhausted Phoenix looked around the room seeing that it probably was an abandoned building because of how the room looked. It was old and everything seemed to be falling apart by the look of things, but it was better than being held prisoner by the hunters. Keith gave a small breath moving to sit up with a painful wince because of the injuries that littered my back and chest. As he moved some green jacket fell into his lap—as it formerly was laying over top of him. It would be a bit for them to heal as his abilities to heal had been stopped by the hunters since they wanted to keep him weakened. They wouldn't have been able to handle him properly if the phoenix was at full strength and would have had a better chance of protecting the young girl. 

A painful breath escaped his lips because of the painful throbs that were felt on his chest and back, he was able to sit up though glancing around the room once more. The place was pretty barren though and looked like it hadn’t been used in years; at least it was a safe place apparently figuring that the ones who rescued him wouldn’t have stayed here if it wasn’t. Keith moved to sit up trying his best to ignore the sharp pain that he felt shoot through him, everything hurt as he could feel the tears prick at his eyes for a moment. A breath escaped his lips trying to deal with the pain before voices suddenly caught his attention from beyond the door

“I’m going to check on him, ‘Cia. He might be awake by now.” 

There was a muffled response, but it was too hard to hear what they had said probably because of how scared they most likely were from the whole ordeal. A young child being held by the hunters and the aftermath of the entire thing wasn’t that surprising; she had every right to be terrified. Hunters were best to be avoided because of the danger that they hold above the supernatural creatures’ heads, it was a daily thing with them as they could show up at anytime with their plans to get their hands on any supernatural creatures that they got news about. 

The door opened revealing the lanky boy with dark blue eyes, a wary look appeared over Keith’s face who did move back not trusting the one in front of him. A wince stopped him though since the movement jarred the injuries which caused Lance to panic and kneel down in front of him 

“Take it easy, you’re still healing. Come on, just lay back down.” 

With his assistance, the fiery phoenix moved to lie back down on the bed propped up against the pillows letting the Cuban boy look over the injuries on his chest and back. Silence was the only thing between them for a few minutes before pulling back with a small sigh.

“Seems to be healing okay, just really slowly. You might be in pain for a bit.” As this mystery savior of his spoke, he proceeded to lay the jacket from before over top of him. 

An annoyed look appeared over Keith’s face at the thought of the injuries healing slowly, if his regenerative abilities could work then he would be healed in no time. That wasn’t going to happen that easily though, the electricity slowed down the healing process making it hard for Keith to recover at the moment.

“I can’t heal properly.... The electricity has stopped my ability to heal. I need fire to start it again… I’m too weak to make any on my own right now.” Keith stared into the stranger’s oceanic eyes as he grumbled out a response. 

—

Ignacia was in the hallway listening in on her uncle and the firebird man. Though she was frightened by all this mess, she did want to help the other creature get back to full strength. Gulping, her body shook a bit as she entered the room. 

Her uncle, Lance, turned her way with a slight frown. “Hey…”

She directed her gaze towards the hurt raven-haired creature. “I can make fire…” She whispered out as she held up her hand and a small flame appeared. 

Keith looked at the girl with a heavy gaze before attempting to smile a little bit. “That should help.”

The small fire elemental smiled a little bit in turn too as she approached him. Leaving her hand out towards him, she tilted her head. 

Moving the jacket back off himself, he didn’t want to burn it during all this. Then, he took the little girl’s hand and absorbed the flame she had created. “If you can, just keep making fire for now. My body absorbs it and should begin to start my healing abilities a bit.”

Lance watched as his niece began to make her flames for Mr. Mullet. However, as he gazed over at the phoenix he was in awe as he literally saw the heat sort of melt away his injuries over his chest. 

Not wanting to wear the girl out, Keith nodded. “That’s good, for now. Thanks.”

Happy to have been some help, she went and latched on to Lance’s leg. Smiling gently as she stood there, looking away awkwardly. “I should be thanking you…” Shaking her head, her smile fell into a frown. Ignacia didn’t want to think about what might have happened if the firebird man hadn’t been there.

As Lance patted the girl’s head, he looked over at the raven-haired beauty. “Thank you for saving her.” 

Not being well accustomed to praise or gratitude, Keith crossed his arms over his bare chest. Averting his violet irises off to the side he shrugged one of his shoulders. His words that followed came out sounded strained. “It…wasn’t a problem…” What he didn’t say was he didn’t want an innocent child to get tortured by those hunters. 

“So, um, mister…um…” The girl started but cut herself off, not knowing what to call him aloud. Firebird man may not be his preferred choice. 

“Keith,” The phoenix supplied them both with as he relaxed a bit and stared at the ceiling. 

Grinning, Lance spoke. “So, mullet has a name. I’m Lance McClain and this is my niece, Ignacia.”

Glaring daggers towards the lanky hot guy, now known as Lance, Keith growled a bit. “My name isn’t mullet.” Even if he chose that hairstyle, it wasn’t his name. 

Lance walked over to stand right above where the phoenix laid. “Jus’ a nickname, Keithy.” Ignacia let go of her uncle’s leg and sat next to the raven-haired man on the bed. 

Blushing faintly, Keith made certain not to look at the grinning idiot above him. “What. Are. You. Doing.” Grumbling out the words, he averted his violet eyes over to anything else he could find.

Now frowning, the Cuban picked up a few strands of the matted and dirty mullet before him. “Hey, ‘Cia? Go see if there’s a bucket and a wash rag or somethin’.”

Shrugging, she jumped off the bed and was gone.

“Why are you touching my hair?” Sitting up, the raven-haired phoenix sighed. The pain had decreased significantly due to Ignacia’s assistance. 

“M’gonna wash it. Or well wet it and get all the junk out at least.” Lance grabbed his jacket and slung it over the grumpy phoenix’s shoulders. “You can wear that, it’s mine but it better than having nothing…” Also, he couldn’t stand to look at Keith’s bare chest—injured or not—any longer. Despite thinking the phoenix looked too thin—the water elemental believed he was way too attractive for his own good.

Sticking his arms through the sleeves, the jacket engulfed him. However, it was at least something to cover himself with. Looking down, he noticed his pants tattered and torn all the way up to his knees almost. Keith didn’t get cold, but he didn’t like being so bare in front of new people. Or even his friends for that matter. Raising his hand up to touch his hair, he frowned. “Yeah…that might help. I can do it myself though.”

“It’s no problem—Keithy~” Lance’s momentary grin turned to him shrugging. “’Sides I can do it quick and not make a mess.” To demonstrate, the elemental formed a ball of water in his hand before latching it around some of the matted raven hair. Then, he waited a moment or two before removing it. 

Blue-grey eyes widened a bit, he noticed the little ball of water was now dirty and murky looking. 

Ignacia chose now to enter the room with a bucket. Sitting said bucket down, she sighed. “Sorry, no rag. This will help at least right?”

Lance nodded as he dropped the now dirty orb of water into the bucket. The Cuban turned the phoenix to face the wall as he sat behind him and continued as he did before. 

Blushing faintly again, Keith heard Ignacia climb up on the bed and sit next to him. She latched her tiny hand within his own before she began to send her flames to him once more. 

Not that they were able to use soap, but at least his hair wouldn’t be so bad off. Once Lance stopped, Keith’s internal heat dried his hair fairly quickly. Only way he could keep his hair wet repeatedly was in the shower or a pool. 

The girl removed her hand as she began to fiddle with his hair. There were still some parts that were stiff, but once he was able to wash it properly that wouldn’t be a problem. 

Glancing over at the other teen’s blue eyes, said phoenix tilted his head slightly. “Do you have a phone I could use?”

—

“Pidge?”

“KEITH?! WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN? We’ve all been so worried when you just vanished like that…”

So, he could explain himself before his best friend went at it again, Keith sighed. “I’m sorry. Though I didn’t have any say so in the matter.” Biting his bottom lip, the phoenix looked down. “Just don’t tell Shiro, okay?”

“He’ll find out, your brother is very resourceful.”

“Like yours.” Keith countered with, smirking.

“No, mine is a dork. A smart dork.” The demon paused before continuing. “Now then, spill.”

“I got captured by the hunters and was locked up pretty much since a few days after I left. I was heading back when they found me. And before you even start on how I could get captured, they shocked me multiple times.” Lying back on the bed, he fiddled with the shirt sleeves on the jacket he was borrowing. Mostly green, a white hood, and two gold/yellow bands around the top of the sleeves the jacket was rather odd looking. Granted people said that about his too. Thankfully, it was waiting for him at home. In his haste to leave his home, he hadn’t grabbed it.

Pidge didn’t say anything at first. After a moment of processing, they sighed. “You’re still an idiot. But fine, just hurry back and I won’t tell Shiro. But you’ll have to tell him something.”

Keith and Pidge lived in the same house as both of their brothers. So, unfortunately, Keith wouldn’t be able to avoid him. 

“Seriously though, are you okay?” 

“Since they shocked me, my healing abilities weren’t working right. But one of the captives there with me can use fire so they’ve been helping me.” Moving to lay on his side, he held the phone to his ear securely. “Honestly, Pidge, I’m exhausted.” Sighing tiredly, he wanted to go home, avoid his brother, and go to bed for days.

“There were others there?”

“Just me and a girl, she can wield flames. Her uncle came there looking for her. So, we all escaped from there…” Though, thinking back he didn’t remember much other than passing out.

“Does the uncle use fire too?”

“No, he uses water, actually.” Keith supplied to Pidge as he stared at the floor. “I think they’re elementals…”

“I assume your phone is gone?”

Keith had no idea what happened to it, so yes. “Yeah, sorry.”

“All right, you venture your way here and I’ll have a new one for you when you get back. Your shit is backed up on your computer, right?”

“Yeah, it should be.” After a few more minutes they said their goodbyes and Keith was up wandering the house as he tried to give Lance his phone back. 

—

On a ratty and banged up couch, Lance laid there asleep. Ignacia reached for the phone from the floor. Keith handed it to her as he sat down by a wall. 

“We can get you some new clothes…when Uncle Lance takes me home…” The fire child fiddled with her Uncle’s phone idly—speaking quietly so not to disturb said hot uncle. 

“Well, I…” Keith knew he should head home himself. However, to get there quickly he’d need to fly with his wings. His wings still ached from what he could tell, thus he’d have to get home the normal way. Unfortunately, trains and taxis cost money and his was all gone now. Actually, it was at home, seeing as he’d forgotten that too in his haste to leave.

“You still need to rest, ‘sides we can’t walk around lookin’ like this.” Both disheveled and with torn clothes, she did make a point.

Keith looked around the building then. “Do you know where we are?”

“Some run-down cabin we found…” Ignacia shrugged then. 

The phoenix stood and looked out the window then. The facility they had been inside of was still in sight. “We’re still too close to there. We need to go.” Biting his lip angrily, he ran over and kicked Lance.

The now annoyed Cuban bolted up and was about to pitch a fit when he was stopped.

“Uncle Lance, we have to go. We’re still close to that bad place.” His niece began to tug on his arm. 

Still grumbling incoherently, Lance got up. 

Once they all were outside—Keith let his aching wings out. Slowly, he felt his body shift and heat into his other form. Tilting his large head to the others, he spoke inside their heads.  _ Get on. I can hear those idiots trying to find us. _ Footfalls could be heard, for him at least, coming from that facility. 

Not wasting any more time, Ignacia pulled her Uncle along as they got onto Keith’s back. Lance frowned as he held on tightly to some feathers. “Don’t burn my jacket.”

_ Don’t pull my feathers out. _ The phoenix rebutted with as he took off into the sky. With his body aching and sore still, he couldn’t fly as high as he wanted. However, he just needed to get home. There, the barrier Allura put up would protect and conceal them.

Having flown for about forty-five minutes now, Keith began to descend. 

“Are we going to that big house?” Ignacia yelled out. 

Grogginess was beginning to overtake the dark red phoenix. The child had snapped him out of it enough to recognize that yes that was home.  _ Yeah…that’s my home.  _

“Hey…you’re dropping kind of fast…” Lance gulped as he watched. 

Keith tried to stop it as best he could—however his body had other ideas. Using as much strength as he could he made a rather clumsy landing. Once he did, he shifted back and saw multiple people run his way then. His name being called out was heard on deaf ears as he fell to the ground. His eyes shut as he passed out.


	2. Burning Insomnia

Concern was resting across Shiro’s face after Keith had been carried inside and placed on one of the beds inside the house. Keith had yet to wake up though.  Even when they tried to awaken him, there was no response from the exhausted Phoenix. Everyone thought that letting him rest would be the best thing for now because of everything that Keith has been through. 

Once Keith was settled into the room, Shiro took Lance and Ignacia to talk somewhere in private to figure out what exactly happened to him since they were the only ones that would have the answers. Ignacia would be the best one to talk to about Keith since Lance only met him after his niece was able to escape from the hunters; the one thing that would be unknown on was how Keith got captured in the first place. That would be Keith’s story to tell, but Shiro hoped that he could at least get some input about what caused the weakened condition that he was in. It most likely was going to be a long talk with Shiro as Ignacia was the one who had more information about what happened to Keith since Lance came to find her after they both were captured. 

Trying to appear unreadable, Shiro finally spoke to his new house guests. “Would you like to explain what happened to my brother?” His voice had elevated and ended up louder than he originally intended. 

Yes, the small child was curious about the brother comment. Currently, she felt inclined to answer the intimidating man’s questions rather than ask any of her own. Glancing down, Ignacia let out a soft sigh as she began to explain her side of the tale. She made sure to tell the man with the scar across his nose what she knew of Keith’s condition, however she was only with him a short time. 

“I got caught by the hunters just like him, but he was already there when I arrived. I was able to escape since Keith protected me from getting hurt while the hunters shocked him to keep him prisoner. Uncle Lance and I were able to get him out before we escaped to a cabin and then came here. I’m sorry that he got hurt, it was my fault...” 

There was silence in the room while Lance moved to hug his niece to reassure her that it wasn’t her fault, the hunters were the ones to blame for what happened to the both of them. Shiro nodded as he wasn’t going to put the blame on either of them for what happened to Keith, they weren’t the enemy. 

_ If it’s anyone’s fault it’s mine…we had that fight and him being the hothead he is ran off afterwards.  _ Shiro’s gaze fell—his darkened colored irises appearing dull. Rubbing the back of his neck, he sighed. 

Lance on the other hand, Shiro was going to be wary around him. As usual he planned to continue his protective streak over his brother—not that Keith was his actual brother. Regardless they still viewed each other as brothers to say the least. Resting his arms across his chest, he glanced over at Lance with a wary look on his face. 

“I don’t know if I can bring myself to trust you two just yet. I want to hear what Keith has to say still before I make my decision. We can talk some more once he wakes up, but make yourselves comfortable until then. There are plenty of extra rooms that you both can rest in for the remainder of the day.” 

—

Lance continued to walk around this maze of a house with his niece on his back. When he wandered down the first hallway, he remembered Keith was dropped off in one of these rooms. Two new voices could be heard from two or three rooms down said hallway. 

Ignacia hopped down and cracked the door open just enough for them to hear the individuals inside speaking.

“And this is exactly why we have fireproof bedding for him. For fuck’s sake—I did not want to walk in here and see him naked!”

“He probably had a nightmare. Stop freaking out, I covered him up quick. Not like you got to see anything for long.”

“What a good best friend you are to him…”

Ignacia leaned too much on the door and tumbled into the room ungracefully. She was in the midst of sitting up with Lance walked in behind her shaking his head. 

“Sorry, she got ahead of me.” Lance tried to say in hopes the two weren’t mad. As he looked over at them, he smiled. “I’m Lance and this little spy is Ignacia.” 

“You can call me ‘Nacia though if you want.” The little girl piped in quietly. 

The shorter of the two shrugged before leaning back on the bed next to a sleeping Keith. They had wavy brown toned hair that came mid way down their neck. Appearing rather messily cut, Lance wondered if they’d cut it themselves.

“It’s okay. I’m Pidge. That’s my brother, Matt.” Pidge wore a hunter green hoodie and grey cargo shorts. Pushing their glasses up a bit on their nose, Pidge glanced over at Lance. “Keith still hasn’t woken up…if that’s why you’re here.”

“No—he just decided to flame up like usual…” Matt grumbled as he crossed his arms over his chest. Pacing about the phoenix’s room, his shoulder length wavy brown hair swayed as he did so. He wore a shirt that appeared like it should be fitted—however it wasn’t—along with some pajama pants. 

Noticing his jacket, Lance pulled it off a nearby chair and put it on then. Frowning, he wondered what the two siblings were talking about. “Flamed up?”

“In his sleep, when he has bad dreams, his body lights on fire and he tends to burn things around him. Luckily, he has fireproof bedding. However, his tattered clothes are a different story.” Pidge rambled on as they sat up. Pulling their phone out, they began to tap away on it. “I’m going to order him some more stuff. He’s down to one of all his clothes he wears again.”

The water elemental blushed as he looked away sheepishly.  _ So, he’s naked under the covers… _

Ignacia came over to the side of the bed and stared at Pidge and then Matt. “You two look a lot alike. The scary man said he was Keith’s brother, but they don’t look alike.”

Both Matt and Pidge laughed at that statement. This knocked Lance back into his senses as he stopped blushing. 

“Shiro isn’t scary. He’s just intimidating when need be.” Matt commented as he calmed down. 

“They’re like brothers. Actually, we’re all like brothers to each other—we’ve grown up together.” Pidge added as well.

“Just two demons, a dragon, and a phoenix all feeling familial bonds for one another. Nothing strange about that.” Matt shook his head as he departed from the room. “Also, Katie, you’re my sister damn it!” He called from the hall. 

“And as I’ve told you—it’s Pidge!” Pidge yelled back. Sighing, they looked from Keith to Lance. “So, what was with the blush a bit ago? You like him or something?”

Well that just made the elemental’s face flush red even more so than before. Trying to come up with something to say, he ended up with. “You’re a girl?”

Pidge smirked, but continued. “I like to use the term agender to describe myself. Matt’s the only one I let get away with it otherwise.” Standing, Pidge walked in front of Lance. Staring upwards at him, their smirk widened a bit. “You are changing the topic and ignoring my questions.”

Before Lance had a chance to further embarrass himself, Keith groaned as he turned on his side to stare at the others in his room. Ignacia noticed he was awake and hopped onto the bed to sit beside him. “He’s up!” She announced to Pidge and her uncle.

Lance’s blush didn’t completely fade as he noted Keith’s sleepy gaze and messy black locks. 

Pidge changed gears quickly as they walked back over to the bed. “You in a talking mood yet or an ‘I just woke up leave me the fuck alone’ mood?”

Keith groaned and buried his face into his pillow as an answer.

“Well, Shiro wants to talk to you.” Pidge went to the closet and dug around until a couple of things were pulled out and laid on the bed. “I can’t really help you out of this one. So, take a shower and get dressed. We’ll be in the living room.” As that was said, the demon pulled the two guests along with them as his room door was shut. 

—

Ten minutes passed before Keith was motivated enough to go take a shower. Once finished, he threw on the clothes Pidge had sat out for him. Dark colored skinny jeans that were torn across the knees and a black tank top now situated on him—he walked over to his closet. Pulling out a red jacket with a yellow stripe going across the midsection, it was completed with white stripes going down the sleeves of the jacket. It was his one article of clothing that was fireproof. 

Not bothering with socks, he walked out of his room. About to walk into the living area, he halted. Pidge and Lance appeared to be locked in a round of Mario Kart. Crossing his arms, the phoenix smiled softly as he watched their race. 

The fire elemental child was sitting behind the two, quietly commenting on how Lance was going to lose if he kept things up.

Just as coughing from a certain someone could be heard, the race ended with Pidge’s obvious victory.

Lance grumbled inaudibly and then said, “I’ll get you next time.” Cramming his hands into his jacket pockets, he noticed Keith. Smirking, he walked over and slung his arm around the raven-haired man’s shoulders. “Hey, mullet.”

“It’s Keith.” Frowning, he turned his blue-grey gaze to glare slightly at Lance.

“Well, at least your mullet’s all nice and clean now.” Humming happily, he pulled Keith along to the sofa. Sitting next to the water elemental—he noticed his “brother” standing in the corner.

Not sure where they both stood after their fight before he stormed out, the phoenix looked down. His bangs fell over his eyes and face more so than normal. 

Pidge sat opposite of Lance and Keith, on a recliner. “I’ll start things off then.” As if sensing Shiro didn’t know how to start the conversation, the demon thought it wise to take initiative. “So,” They began to say as they looked at Lance. “Keith left due to a fight with Shiro.”

“Pidge!” Shiro finally butted in. Running a hand through his hair, he sighed.

“Oh, shush. They deserve to know.” Pidge shook their head before looking at Keith. “So, after you left what happened?”

Still looking down, he tried to figure out how to best explain what happened. “I made my way into town, thought about heading to Regris’ place until I cooled off.  By then it was getting dark and I noticed two people following me. I would have teleported—however there wasn’t a safe place to do so. I went down an alley to try and fight them off, but someone was waiting there and tried to shoot me. The bullets grazed me, which gave the other two the opportunity to use a lightning spell on me. One of them was muttering the whole time, so I figured it was magic.”

“Iron bullets?” Shiro quirked an eyebrow as he questioned midway through Keith’s tale.

Nodding his head in reply, Keith bit his bottom lip as he finally looked up. 

Small footsteps could be heard as Ignacia came around and got right next to Keith. “Iron hurts you?”

Startled a little by the proximity, he scooted back into the couch by reflex. “Y—yeah. It’s the one metal that burns us upon touch. That’s how they were able to grab me. While I was locked up, the wounds healed, but they kept shocking me, so it was taking a lot longer than normal. Also, I was getting stuck with my wings and other parts out when I tried to shift.”

“The bars you melted at the bad place…weren’t iron?” Cocking her head to the side, she sat in the floor and stared up at her savior.

“No, they probably thought it didn’t matter at that point. The rest I’m sure these two have told you?” Gazing from the two elementals over to the resident dragon, he frowned. 

“Hey, if you can teleport then why subject us to riding on your back here?” Pouting, Lance poked Keith’s side repeatedly. 

“I didn’t—“ Keith snapped his head around to growl lowly at cute yet annoying individual next to him. “I. Was. Tired.”

“But phoenixes are almighty creatures, right?” Grinning, the elemental kept up the poking seeing as it was effectively irritating said phoenix. 

“Everyone has weak points,” Keith grumbled out. He attempted to swat Lance’s hand away from his side. 

“Wow, you’re just as Hunk described.” Pidge laughed and shook their head. 

Everyone in the room slowly all eyed the demon curiously.

Shiro frowned first and then tilted his head to the side a bit after a moment in thought. “What exactly are you say— “

Lance interrupted Shiro then by standing up, arms crossed over his chest. “Hey, how do you know my Hunk?” Pausing in thought, he pointed one of his fingers towards Pidge. “Wait—are you that tech nerd he tells me about?”

“Gee, I thought he would have called me something nicer.” Pidge grumbled.

“How about…wicked yet methodical demon who’s also a tech genius?” Keith smirked as he commented about his best friend.

“Well, you would say the accurate answer.” Pidge in turn smirked a little bit as well. 

“Why’d you say Hunk was yours, anyway?” Shiro approached the group and settled with sitting on the ottoman. “Lance?”

“He’s always saying stuff like that. Uncle Hunk and Uncle Lance are besties, that’s all.” Smiling, the little girl stood and proceeded to climbing on the couch and hiding behind Keith. 

Keith muttered something incoherently as the child situated herself behind him. Frowning, he wondered why she wanted to be so close to him.

“So, uh, are you really a dragon?” Ignacia peeked from behind the phoenix’s shoulder. 

“I am, but you don’t have to hide.” Shrio smiled, hoping to quell her nerves.

“…okay, maybe right now he’s not so scary. You should still hide from him.” Keith warned Ignacia.

She laughed in response as Shiro coughed. “You do realize I can hear you. I can also beat you up.”

“Well, I can beat the sh—“ Keith had been about to curse, however the weight against his back reminded him perhaps he shouldn’t. 

“You can both beat each other up, we all get it.” Pidge sighed.

“I’m bigger than you are, in both forms.” Shrio crossed his arms as he grinned.

“I can change my size in my other form you know.” Grumbling, he tuned his head off to the side. Sometimes it wasn’t always best to be a full-sized phoenix. “Besides I don’t see how that matters.”

The dragon stared at his brother with a frown. He wanted to talk to him about their last interaction—their fight. Standing, he sighed. “Well, I suppose it doesn’t matter that much. Anyway, can we talk?” With that he left the room in hopes Keith would follow him.

Running his hands through his black locks, he groaned. “Do I have to talk to him?”

“’Cia come here.” Lance grabbed Ignacia from behind Keith and poked his side once more. “You probably should.”

The phoenix stood up and stalked after what might be his impending death, so to speak.  _ Maybe it won’t be so bad… _ He could hope. Sighing, he glanced once more back at Lance before moving down the hallway.

—

Keith knew that the talk with his brother was one that he really wasn’t looking forward to, the fight that they had was still fresh on his mind. He didn’t even really know what to say about it either. They didn’t end on good terms while the raven haired one was still replaying the fight in his mind over and over again. A slight feeling of fear did loom over his head since he had no idea on what was going to happen next, a lecture would be the one thing that the young phoenix was going to face. Lectures that he had dealt with many times before because of Shiro putting the big brother act on. Running away and hiding was the only thing that he wanted to do at the moment though, but Shiro wasn’t going to let him get away that easily. 

Silence probably was going to be the only thing that the dragon would get from Keith, it was going to be difficult to get any answers out of him. Answers that most likely would be important to discover the ones that had attacked him in the first place. Keith really didn’t know who they were except that they were hunters who were interested in him. Maybe they wanted him for his abilities or possibly needing him for something else, sticking around for answers was off the agenda. The phoenix was just relieved to be away from there despite the aches and pains that he still felt. Honestly, he just wanted to hide. Shiro wasn’t going to let him get away that most likely, at least not without their little brotherly talk first.

Resting against the wall, his arms crossed his chest like Keith was trying to defend himself from any words that were going to escape from Shiro’s mouth. Words that he was afraid to hear because of how bad the lecture was going to be, a lecture he wanted to avoid as much as possible. 

A small breath escaped from the older dragon before looking up at the one who was standing across from him. “I’m sorry for the fight, I didn’t want things to end like that. But, we need to talk about this, Keith.” 

Keith knew that it was going to be difficult to avoid this mostly because of how serious Shiro was when it came to fixing things. Causing Shiro to stop would be difficult since he could be pretty stubborn just like the young Phoenix was, he just wanted the babying to stop. He wasn’t a little kid anymore, but that overprotective side that Shiro had wasn’t going to go away that easily. Midnight blue-grey eyes glanced down knowing that there was guilt and probably blaming himself for why he ran away in the first place, he didn’t want the other to blame himself for the fight. His temper had a bad habit of kicking in especially after the terrible fight that they had, a fight that Keith just wanted to forget. He hated it, hated everything about it. 

“I know... I shouldn’t have rushed out like that. My temper just got the best of me, you know how I get.” 

Silence filled the room while Shiro was trying to figure out what to say next. Keith really didn’t know what to say next either. He just wanted to put this behind him and forget about what happened, he loathed fighting with his “family”. It seemed like the wall had become attached to Keith’s back who refused to push himself off of it, he didn’t have the urge to move across the room to the one that was standing on the other side. That was answered for him though because of the warm hold that suddenly wrapped around him, a warm hold that he had felt many times before. Mostly when Shiro was trying to comfort him depending on what struggles Keith was dealing with. (Also, his brother was known to hug him for others reason as well, one of which was just to annoy the phoenix due to him not being touch averse most of the time.) Letting out a small breath, his arms rested around the older man’s back before closing his eyes for just a moment. 

All had been forgiven despite having a few more things to work out, but it was something that they could deal with later. Keith knew that he and Shiro would be fine, despite their bouts. In the end, they always made up. (Although, sometimes that ended with them sparring until one of them passed out.)

There were more important issues to deal with currently. The hunters being the main source of conflict, since it was unknown on that their plans were and the reason on why they captured the young Phoenix in the first place. Answers were needed, but it was going to take time to get them since it was never easy when it came to dealing with the hunters. They were a threat that had been around for many years, a threat that wasn’t going to go away anytime soon. Something needed to be done about them though, hopefully, those answers will come even if it is going to be a difficult journey to get them. Maybe, luck will be on their side and the answers will appear without too much trouble depending on what is out there waiting for creatures just like them. 


End file.
